Google, like many others, to open Indian data center

Google is setting up shop on Indian soil, better to serve its users in south …

Google is set to open a billion-dollar data center in Andhra Pradesh, India, as the company's proposal has been cleared by the Indian government's Board of Approvals. The search and advertising giant is reportedly planning a facility with about 1 million square feet of floor space in one of India's Special Economic Zones (SEZs) that operate outside of the country's normal economic legal framework. These zones are meant to stimulate foreign investments, and it looks like that plan is working just fine.

Apart from Google, other companies that recently committed to invest at least $1 billion into one or more Indian SEZs include AMD, Dell, Accenture, Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco. Another 45 SEZ zones were also approved this week, maxing out the allotment of such constructs and lighting a fire under the government to allocate more SEZ designations. The backlog of applications for that status numbers in the hundreds.

India is part of the BRIC bloc—Brazil, Russia, India, China—that has investors and market analysts salivating over insane growth prospects. That's partly a result of a massive population with growing economic means, and partly of government concessions to foreign interests such as SEZs and government grants to some companies that invest in the region.

Sources say that Google's expansion isn't a call center, but a data center. The facility is supposed to act as a concentrator for Google access, including GMail, search results, cached data, and so forth, that will make access to the services faster and more reliable for surfers in south Asia. Given India's economic growth, Google's interest in supporting users there is hardly surprising.